British No1, Heather Watson, insists the coaches have let the players 'slip and get away with it'. Photograph: Michael Mayhew/Sportsphoto/Sportsphoto Ltd./Allstar

Britain’s top female tennis player, Heather Watson, has backed comments by a departing coach that British players are too spoilt to succeed at the highest level of the sport.

Julien Hoferlin, who until this week coached the British No2, Dan Evans, as part of the Lawn Tennis Association’s lavishly funded setup, said on Wednesday: “The transition between the juniors and the seniors seems to be very, very bad. There’s not an exceptional ‘tennis culture’ at club level and the players are too spoilt.”

Asked about Hoferlin’s comments on Thursday, Watson, the British No1, said: “I understand where he is coming from. I see it with some people more than others. We are a strong and rich federation, so I can see that people would say that.

“I see some [players] not working week in, week out, choosing when they want to work, [and] not just the players, the coaches have let them slip and get away with it. Nothing is said if they do not win or play that week.” She stressed, however, that “a lot of players do give hard, hard work”.

The coach’s criticisms were also endorsed by two other defeated British Wimbledon hopefuls. Daniel Smethurst, ranked No5 in the UK, said: “Obviously some people are spoilt, definitely, in this country, while others work very hard.

“I have known Jules for a long time. He would be talking about a few players.”

Ross Hutchins, who like Smethurst was knocked out of the first round of the doubles championship on Thursday, said: “I think the resources that we have and the standard of juniors that we have, we would hope to have more progression.”

On the question of whether British players were spoilt, he said: “Julien would have a pretty good estimation of that … [He] is a pretty experienced coach. Normally he should know what he is talking about.”

The LTA, the governing body of British tennis which is in charge of nurturing British talent, has an annual turnover of around £60m a year, receiving £35m from Wimbledon alone in 2013 alongside a £3m grant from Sport England. Last year it spent £12.2m on developing young players, who have access to its world class facilities at the National Tennis Centre at Roehampton. But with Watson losing her second-round match to the No9 seed, Germany’s Angelique Kerber, the only Briton remaining in the Wimbledon singles draw is the defending champion, Andy Murray.

“I remain convinced that, with the financial and human resources we have, plus the infrastructure and number of players, we should have been able to produce more [successful players],” Hoferlin, who has worked in British tennis for six years, told the Belgian radio station RTBF.

It is notable that all three of the British players to progress to the second round from an initial crop of 11 – Murray, Watson and Naomi Broady, 24 – have pursued their careers largely outside the British tennis establishment.

Judy Murray, the British Federation Cup captain and mother of Andy, said last week that the money sloshing around the British game was spoiling young players. She said: “Our kids live in a comfort zone. I’d go back to basics and away from the mollycoddling and the enormous expenditure. Let’s see who really wants it.”

She stressed that her son, the defending Wimbledon champion, had taken a very different course. “He went to Spain when he was 15. He was surrounded by much older people who were way higher in the world than him and he learned how to work hard by being around them. His work ethic is unbelievable … I’m not sure that we create that so well here.’

This month the LTA appointed Bob Brett, an Australian who has coached Boris Becker, Goran Ivanisevic and Marin Cilic, as its director of player development.

In a statement, the organisation said: “In recent years we have changed the way we support our players with the introduction of a tournament bonus scheme which puts the onus on the players to earn their funding. [Brett] has already talked about his ‘no compromise’ approach to high performance and he will no doubt have a big impact on the culture of our sport when he starts in September.”

The Belgian singled out his former charge Evans for particular criticism, saying: “He [Evans] has the potential to make himself a top-60 player, but he makes no sacrifices for his sport. He doesn’t understand that tennis has to be his priority. For him, it’s just a brief interlude in his life.”

Evans declined to comment.

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